Just keep scrappin'

I was able to do one more page yesterday and another today. I hadn't worked on any wedding pages in quite a while, but I really love the way this one turned out. That is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day! :D
I also uploaded a picture I took of Mikey today. The kids have gotten to taking the 3D glasses and popping the lenses out and wearing the glasses like that! No joke! It's kind of like a "trend" or something w/the middle school aged kids...how funny! Anyway, that's all for today!

Me + scrapbooking

= one happy girl!! I was kind of dragging on getting some scrapping done today. Even though I had kind of planned to spend the day scrapping since I had done all my house cleaning and chores yesterday and had decided I would try to get some pages done. I guess I should say I was feeling LAZY! Yes, that is more like it! lol But even so, I sat down at my table and just started playing with some paper and I was able to crank out THREE pages that I just LOOOOOVE!! Two were very loosely based on other people's pages...and the one of Mikey asleep in his walker, was ALL ME :D I just LOVE that hot air balloon which I just bought in a pdf file from an ETSY shop! I got THE most awesome pdf files from a seller on there. Gosh, I can't remember the name at the moment, but trust me...they were some awesome looking images and CHEAP too! For being able to print these things over and over FOREVER...the price was awesome! Each sheet had 4 images and each file was no more than $2.50. I also uploaded a picture of some library cards I altered which I also got a while back on ETSY. I think they turned out really cute and I could use them for cards or something. Anyway, that's about it...just wanted to share my scrappy yummies with you guys!

Stamps for Trade

These are some acrylic stamps I have for sale or trade. Both the Autumn Leaves flourishes sets have been used. A few are stained from the ink, but they are still in working condition. The Autumn Leaves scrolly type frames and borders is new and never been used, but I threw the packaging away. The hearts and stars might be Lil' Davis...I can't remember the brand and only a couple of the stamps were used from there...also is very good condition. The scrolly journaling frames are Kaiser Kraft and were never used, but taken out of the original packaging. The Sassafras Lass Edgy Egdes is also new, never been used and still in package. The other Sassafras Lass are the doodled borders and corners. Here is a link because it is a little hard to see without the packaging. Those were used too, but in good condition.
http://www.scrap-mart.com/browseproducts/Sassafras-Lass-Doodled-borders--Acrylic-Stamps.HTML

I really want to sell them all in a lot so that I don't have to pay seperate shipping. I will price them at $25 plus cheapest shipping (will ship in a big enough bubble envelope), maybe $3 at the most....not too sure how much it would cost, but it shouldn't be much. Please post here or send me a private message either here or on Scrapbook Mentor...thanks :)

Scrapbook Mentor Sneek Peek

Here's a sneek peek of the goodies...bunches of quotes, tickets, some bingo cards, some library cards, a couple of doilies and a mini matchbook. I'm leaving the cover blank so you can decorate it any way you'd like :) Add yourself to my blog followers and leave a comment here saying you are now a follower. Your name will be added for a chance to win this yummy scrappy prize :)

Matchbook Mini

Sorry about the pics...they are out of order and I am too lazy to fix it! lol :)

Rahel over at scrapbookmentor.com posted a tutorial vid on how to make these cute little matchbooks and I thought it would be an awesome idea to make a mini book out of, so that's what I did today! Since I spent the WHOLE day cleaning, doing laundry, washing fans, bathing dogs...or dog I should say...lol I gave myself permission to do nothing but scrap today and I did! I still have a few pages to fill...about 3 or so, but this is what I have so far. I even made one for Mikey and he filled it with pics too! If you haven't checked out Rahel's You Tube vids, you totally should! I found her on there a few months back and fell in love with her scrapbooking videos and style! Her name on You Tube is swissgirl90. She also started up a scrapbooking website called Scrapbook Mentor. If you haven't checked it out, go on over and join...it's FREE!! She also has an ESTY shop where she sells some of her OWN designed acrylic stamps and her blog is Swissgirl Designs....go...NOW! lol :)

Some scrappy shares

Not much going on around here. Miguel went back to work this week after being off for a week. We were able to do some stuff while he was home...just hanging out together as a family which we just don't do much of when he's working. He just spends TOO much time at work and when he's home, he's usually asleep! It was good though...lots of fun and I'm already looking forward to his next one which I advised him he should take in September for our one year anniversary...wink, wink ;) lol

I got a few pages done last week I think....or no, maybe the week before Miguel was on vacation, but hadn't gotten around to posting here. One is an 8.5x11 and one is 12x12. I've also done two more pages in my art journal/smashbook, but need to get pics of those.

What else is going on? Not much really. The kids are home, driving me nutty as usual. I really wish Lij and Mikey would get along better. Mikey just ADORES Lij and just wants to be around him and wants Lij to play with him or do stuff with him. And I totally get it, Lij is 12...almost 13, but I think he forgets what it was like to be 6 and look up to an older brother. I remember when Lij was little and he was always wanting to do what his older brother, Josh was doing, but Josh was so different with Lij. If he was sitting at the table drawing, he'd have Lij sit there across the table from him and they would both draw together. He was never really "mean" to him and loved hanging out with Lij and doing stuff w/him. I really wish Lij would just understand how much Mikey looks up to him. I think he'll be going back to his dad's this weekend and will probably be there for a week. His dad gets him for a month in the Summer, but sometimes, we split it up into 4 seperate weeks. Anyway, he (Lij) can pretty much go spend time with his dad any time he wants as long as we have nothing planned. We don't really follow the whole standard visitation thing.

I'm itching to create....have so much stuff that I had gotten a couple months back when we had our tax refund and I just don't sit down to scrap as much as I should or would like to. Sometimes I just feel so darn lazy to get stuff out! lol And speaking of lazy.....sad face...I fell off the gym wagon...AGAIN! Was doing so good too.....for a whole month, but every week, I went less and less days...5 to start with, then 4, then 3, ect, ect. I haven't gone in about two weeks :( It's just harder now with the kids home since I was going after they'd left for school. Miguel hasn't gone either, but he's so busy...I'm surprised he was finding time to go at all! I really just need to find my motivation again which is SUPER hard! We'll see.....

Well, it's late and I can't remember everything it was that I wanted to write soo....until next time. I'd really like to be better at keeping my blog up because there are alot of little daily life things that I would just like to write down and document for later, but I'm just so bad at making time to do it. Another thing I need to work on.....good night :)

Happy Father's Day

What can I say about you, sweetie? In the 7+ years we have known each other, you never cease to amaze me....and annoy me...ha,ha...JUST KIDDING :) As far as being a father goes, I have the upmost respect and admiration for you because not only are you a great daddy to Mikey, but you are an exceptional dad to Elijah. From the beginning, you never hesitated, second guessed or backed away from entering a relationship with someone who already had a son. You loved me, and from the start....you loved him. You stepped in and stepped up when his own father wasn't around. You have never treated him like he wasn't your own and you do as much for him...if not more...as you do for Mikey. In my opinion, you EARNED the right to be called his father long before you and I were ever married. We have had our ups and downs in our relationship, but in the past few years, I have seen you grown... as a man of God, as a father and as a husband. I see that our boys look to you as an example of what it is to be a good man and I am proud that you are making more responsible choices because of this. You are a hardworker and a good provider for our family and we appreciate all that you do for us. Even though I get frustrated and miss you because of all the time you spend at work away from us, I know that if given the choice, you would be here with us all the time. I know that you do it for us. You make a huge effort to make the most of the time we do have together by taking us to do things as a family or even when we just spend time at home doing what you love best: bbqing and hanging out with the kids at home. Those are the times that I know you love best and so do we :) Thank you, baby, for all that you do. I hope that today and every day, you know just how much we admire, respect and appreciate you. I love you so very much and I don't know what we would do without you. Happy Father's Day, Shmoopy Loopy....I hope you have an awesome day :)

Update with pictures

My, my, am I bad at keeping up with this thing! Why? I have no idea! I used to be so good at blogging regularly! Anyway....stuff going on here. The most recent thing is that Max got stung by what we suspect was a wasp! OMG...I get a HUGE lump in my throat just thinking of what his little face looked like that morning! It was HUGE! His little eyes, mouth, snout, his entire head was swollen! Miguel immediately called the vet and he took him in and left him there on his way to work. I got a call from them shortly after and they said he had a high fever and they had given him a couple of injections for the swelling and they were going to monitor him. I was SUPER scared and worried for him. I was a MESS the whole day. Thank God, the swelling went down and his fever went away and Miguel picked him up that evening. His face was just a tiny bit swollen still so we were instructed to give him Benadryl until it went down. That was so scary and hopefully nothing like that will happen again anytime soon! I absolutley LOVE that little, furry guy and I don't know what I would do if something happened to him!

I've been creating....some pages, my sis and I started a kind of art journal book that was inspired by the new K&Co SMASH book. Sure, we could just buy one...lol, but I thought it would be more fun to make one. Apparently people have been making them for a while...lol I think I'm just a little late on the trend! lol I bought some half sized binders on Ebay and used those to put my pages in. I used patterned papers, envelopes, tickets, all sorts of things. I altered the cover and still plan on altering the inside pockets and possibly the back cover. My sis and I worked on our first pages in the book last night. She showed me something she thought was cool and had bookmarked in her 2 Peas bookmarks, so we Skyped and did our pages together. I think they came out pretty cool if I do say so myself! :) I worked on another page alone today. Sometimes I think I start too many projects and then have too many things going on...lol...oh well, if it makes me happy, then who cares, right?! Miguel had bought me a book a couple of weeks back called "We Dare You". I believe it has/had something to do with Effer Dares. Anyway, it has alot of cool challenges and I thought I'd maybe do those and put those in my art journal. I was also thinking of maybe posting the challenge here for those of you who might want to play along. We'll see :)

Mikey had an award ceremony yesterday and he received FOUR medals! YAY! We are so proud! I loved that half way of walking across the stage, he stopped, turned to the audience and waved! LMBO! It looked SO funny! He's such a ham! And he was so proud of all his medals! I'll have to take a pic of them and make a page about that.

Oh, Miguel had started a garden a few months back. He actually does it every year...lol and all the years past, the little seedlings never made it. But this year, they have survived even without getting much rain here. But Miguel waters them faithfully every morning and night. We have some tall sunflowers and some of the veggie plants have started growing stuff....he forgot to mark them, so we have a few long, green things we think might be squash or watermelon! lol We also have a tomato! It is so cool! I know he is just so proud! I'm proud of him too!!

What else? Can't think of anything else....it's a little past 3 p.m. and the kids will be getting here soon, so I'd better get lunch started. Until later :)

I'm Such A Dope, WHAT the heck, and other ramblings...

Ugh, I feel like such a dope! Yesterday after Miguel had gotten home from work, we took Mikey to go eat at Chick Fil A because he loves playing in that little playset. Which BTW, it was a MAD HOUSE in there! TONS of bigger kids, rough housing BIG TIME. And a few little necio kids (don't know how to translate that for my non Spanish speaking friends...irritating maybe?) who kept doing things they shouldn't be doing like blocking the bottom of the slide w/their body. One little kid whose mother was actually sitting right there by the window in full view of him, kept climbing the door handles and hanging there while people went in and out. One man...thank you, sir for being that person who isn't afraid to speak up, actually told him to get down! lol I was telling Miguel because there were alot of Mexicans there (or Hispanics I should say...like us) and he had asked "what side of town are we in?" (1604 and Culebra) and I said it was because this place is nicer and cleaner because of the location that we all come over here! lol But sadly, it's Hispanics like that woman who doesn't watch her kids, who lets them play rough without telling them to watch for other kids that give us all a bad name. Sad, but true because we all know that there ARE those people who will look at those little brown kids and wonder why their mothers don't watch them and then think "oh, those Mexicans." LOL It's true though! You know it is! lol Anyway, I'm getting WAY of subject....We went to the Michael's in the little shopping center there just to look and I picked up a FEW things out of the dollar bins and some awesome stamps my sis had bought a while back that were on clearnance for $2.50! (will post a pic later) and a few crafty things for Mikey. It was only $10. Anyway, the girl rings me up and I start to look in my wallet for my credit card....sinking feeling....I look where I normally have it...I look in all the other pockets and compartments...I can feel my face getting hot and probably a bit red...lol. I apologize to the girl and tell her I'm looking for my credit card, but it's NOT there! Thankfully, Miguel was standing right by the check out reading some book so I ask him if he has it and he says no. So then I ask him if I can use his...lol because I can't find mine. I felt like such a DOPE! Why? Because this is not the first time it's happened to me! The last time, my sis and I were at a craft store and I was LOADED up with scrapbook stuff: papers, stamps, ect and when I went to pay...I didn't have it. And I have NO idea where it was! I had to leave my stuff there and ask the woman to hold it for me so I could come back later, but by the time Miguel got off work, went home to look for it (btw, it was in the pocket of a jacket I had last worn) and went to get us at my sis's house, the store had closed. And I don't really go there unless I'm with my sis. I really need to be more careful with my card. I try to make a concious effort to put it back in the SAME spot after each use, but then I get lazy and just stick it in the first place I come across. It's not like I have TONS of money in there because I don't, but still...I need to be more careful.


After that we had to do our grocery shopping so Miguel had to write a check since I left my card (oh and after we left M's, I immediately remembered where I had left it!). We spent over $120 and we did NOT have enough bags in my opinion. Gosh, the price of EVERYTHING keeps getting higher and higher! The thing that shocked me the most, was the price of the toilet paper we use..lol We hadn't bought any in a LONG time because my mom was pretty stocked up, but we finally ran out, but I remember paying about $5 and change for a 12 pack of Scott and now.....$8.57! OMG...almost NINE dollars for toilet paper! I considered going with a cheaper store brand, but sorry...I'm very picky about my toilet paper! lol We also get these bags of Tyson chicken tenderloins from the frozen food section. I think they were about $6 and change on sale, but then I saw the regular price was over $9!! We are going to have to start eating cheaper I think! lol


Oh, forgot to touch on NSD...Chon had come over to scrap the day away and check out all the online challenges and contests online that day. I hadn't had the chance to plan any pages ahead of time so I didn't really get much done except for two 8.5x11 pages. One of which I did for one of the challenges over on scrapbook.com. It was a random drawing for the winner, but I didn't win :( $135 worth of free scrapbook stuff would have been really nice :) lol But I guess I can't be greedy because I won last year. Maybe next year. I'll post the pic of the page I did for the contest. Oh and of some flash cards I printed out in word and altered a bit.





No church today. Miguel had to go help his parents at their little shop so Mikey and I are home for the day. I miss South San Filidelfia. We went to his church two Sundays in a row (we take turns each week) and today it was my turn. Can't wait until next Sunday. When he gets home, we are going to move some furniture around. With the bad rain we had on Thursday, a corner of our bedroom got a leak and I really don't want to have our bed right by it. So we are switching our bedroom with the kids "play room" (which was my mom's room). I was going to start the other day, but didn't want to hurt my gergin! lol I might try to move what I can before he gets here just to speed it along...just the smaller stuff. Anyway, that's about all that's going on around here. Just wanted to do a small update of my oh so interesting life! lol Smell ya latah ;)

Mother's Day

Almost everyone who knew me back in high school thought I was going to be a writer. When I was little, I wanted to be a veterinarian. As I grew older and fell in love with reading and writing, I really wanted to be a high school English teacher. God had different plans for me. At times I forget that I am not defined by my lack of a "profession", that just because I don't "work" outside of the house or have a job that pays me in money, that I am worth less than a woman who financially contributes to her family. It's very easy to fall into that trap at times. I have to remind myself at times that being a mother is the highest calling from God and that not every woman is blessed with that honor. I have to remind myself that I do more than wash laundry and make lunches....that I am shaping the lives of two human beings. That the values, ideas, morals I am instilling in my boys will determine the kinds of men they will grow up to be. I know that I am blessed to have this very important job. And although it is nerve wracking at times, scary, confusing, trying, never ending...I wouldn't trade this for the world. Because of my boys, I have become a better person....I strive to be a better person...every day...every minute. Because of them, I have had the opportunity to experience a love like no other. A love so big that at times it literally makes my heart hurt. It's a scary kind of love because two pieces of my heart are walking around outside my body every day and I can't always be with them to protect them and I have to leave that in God's hands and trust that He loves them even more than I do. I'm not going to lie and say that being a mother is always sunshine and rainbows because with a preteen and a stubborn, strong willed six year old...it's NOT! There are days when I want nothing more than to hide in a hole somewhere, in the dark, quiet where no one is calling me "mommy" or asking for something from me because at times I feel like I give and give until there's nothing more of me to give anyone...not even myself. But when I look at these sweet little faces, when I hear their voices saying "I love you", when I feel their arms around me and I know that even though they don't always listen and they may roll their eyes at me and mumble things under their breath, they love me....they really, truly love me. And they depend on me....for everything....I am taken back, and I am honored...and it is all worth it :)